China Must Stop Sinicization of Tibetan Language

October 29, 2010

Tsewang Gyalpo Arya
Tibet House, Japan
October 20, 2010

Tokyo -- Imposition of Chinese language as medium
of instruction in Tibetan schools in Tibet is
going to be the last straw to break the Tibetans'
patience. Chinese government is going too far in
their sinister design to exterminate the Tibetan
language and culture. When the 50 years of their
brutal and oppressive rule failed to subjugate
the Tibetans, they are now up with this dreadful
policy to eradicate the very nerve and fabric of
Tibetan identity that keeps the Tibetan united, resilient and peaceful.

When the free world is doing its best to preserve
the dying culture and languages, China is trying
to kill the language, which is not only the life
and soul of the Tibetan civilization but also the
indispensable medium that has kept the profound
teaching of Buddha alive to this day.

Tibetan language is among the richest languages
in the world. Tibetan epic, King Gesar of Ling
[Ling gesar gyalpoi drung] is believed to be the
longest written epic poem with 120 volume in more
than one million lines and more than 20 million
words. Indian mythological epic, Mahabarata, and
Japanese Genji Monogatari by Murasaki Shikibi
comes next to this Tibetan epic in terms of
volumes. Richness of the language could be
understood from the fact that it has 108
connotative words for 'sun' [nyima] and 36 for 'moon' [dawa].

It is also believed that per capita book written
has been highest in Tibet. The country had
produced large number of Buddhist, Bon and lay
literatures despite its sparse population.

Communist authority must be thinking that by
destroying Tibetan language and religion they can
assimilate the Tibetans into the Han majority
culture; this is a very shortsighted and wrong
vision. The world and the history will never
forgive them if they commit this sacrilegious
against Tibet, one of the respected ancient civilizations in the world.

I hope and pray that Chinese leadership listen to
the demonstrating students and think twice before
implementing such ominous crime against civilization